Casting His Eerie Glow Upon the Masses

Kudos to Dr. Parkinson

Seth Godin brought Jay Parkinson, MD to my attention in his blog. I’d like to applaud Dr. Parkinson for bringing an innovative approach to medical care.

I think the professional as consultant model could really work. Looking at today’s trends, it seems that as increasing numbers of people becoming well-connected, middlemen are slowly becoming obsolete. Perhaps the most public expression of that is the writer’s guild strike, and how many producers are looking at online distribution to bypass the mess. For some fields, this works well. However, in others, there is still a strong need for domain knowledge, and that’s something that folks like Dr. Parkinson can provide.

What this is all pointing to is Vendor Relationship Management, and I predict this will become a hot topic in the coming years. Imagine a world where you have a personal relationship with your doctor and your lawyer, like you might have with an insurance agent or stock broker today.

The Project VRM site mentions four forecasts of how VRM may evolve. I, for one, would most like to live in the “global village” scenario, where I own my personal information and most transactions are with trusted vendors.

It’s thought-provoking stuff. I wish Dr. Parkinson the best success in the future!